In the 1970s, we were told to ignore warnings of environmental and social collapse. As those warnings come true, once again we are being told that ‘technology’ will come to our rescue.

In the 1970s, we were told to ignore warnings of environmental and social collapse. That many people did was the result of a concerted corporate-funded fightback against a rising, critical environmental consciousness.

In the 1970s, we were told to ignore warnings of environmental and social collapse. Once again, we need to resist the fantasy that technology will resolve our problems.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the chapters in my new book, about why conservatism has become so focused on revenge and retribution.

Why to some, dystopian sci-fi is not a warning but a promise.

Here’s an excerpt from (chapter 4 of) my new book on how classic science fiction films predicted the future we’re increasingly living in.

Now we’re in the future… how’s it going?

At the end of Terminator 2, we’re travelling down a highway at night, again. Sarah Connor says, “The unknown future rolls towards us. I face it for the first time with a sense of hope.” But can we do the same?

Here’s the preface to my new book, Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films.

“Come with me if you want to live”

“Bloody paperwork”

“All you have to do is cooperate”: V For Vendetta and the vengeful authoritarian regimes to come under collapse

“This is the voice of world control”: Why we don’t listen to stories like Colossus that tell us not to trust the machines

“Your future comfort is assured”: How the corporate-controlled ‘utopia’ of Rollerball isn’t as content as it first appears

“They’re running out of the damn Green again!”: How Soylent Green and the serious sci-fi of the 1970s predicted social collapse

“Oh, wouldn’t it be great if I was crazy? Then the world would be okay”: No-one believes the plague-ridden future of 12 Monkeys could actually happen, and then…

“I mean, how can all this be happening? It’s like we’re in hell or something”: How a 1980s sci-fi comedy adventure is much smarter than it first appears

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe”: Why the sci-fi future effectively ended with Blade Runner

Blaming creators for their recurringly dark visions of the future gets the problem exactly the wrong way around: we created the future that they reflect in their pessimistic views about what’s to come.

Our views of the future have changed, because the actual future has changed. One of my favorite books as a child indicates how much the future isn’t what it used to be.